<p>Hello, I'm a current high school senior in Oklahoma, planning to be pre-med. My first choice school is Vanderbilt, and I will be finding out if I'm accepted or not in a few days. Anyway, I am quite worried about chemistry in college. Since I'm pre-med, I'll have to take Chem 1 & 2 and Organic 1 & 2 (if I'm not mistaken.)</p>
<p>The thing is, I'm terrible at chemistry, and I'm not sure why. I took Pre-AP and AP Chem my sophomore and junior year. I made As in both classes, but ended up with a 2 on the AP test. I know I wouldn't get credit for it anyway, but this is my lowest AP score and the least favorite class I have ever taken. I'm not sure if it was my teacher (who was a total jerk) or something on my part that just doesn't click with chemistry. It's weird, because I love biology and other sciences, and I got a 780 on the Biology-Molecular SAT II Test. (which has elements of chemistry in it.) But I am genuinely terrified that my chemistry classes in college will be hell and that I won't be able to get into medical school.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do over the summer to prepare myself? I've thought about maybe buying a chemistry textbook off of Amazon and studying from it. We do have a local community college that offers chemistry classes but I'm not sure how Vanderbilt or other colleges might feel about me taking a class there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be fine. If you really feel anxious, wait till you hear back from colleges and ask them about their policies on taking courses at other schools, or before fall matriculation.</p>
<p>Just relax and just take the General Chemistry in College and see how it goes, if it doesn’t go so well, try to get help/tutor. If that doesn’t work, see what is the problem, is it the labs? certain topic? tests? the way the professor teaches? Try to learn from your mistakes and you should be fine. I am kind of in a similar situation as you. I LOVE biology, and now I am in Pre-AP Chemistry. My teacher is the worst teacher I’ve had in my life but I still study me @$$ off and look online for help and I end up enjoying that material and do well on the tests. Good luck:)</p>
<p>I had a horrible teacher in high school too. I would check out ratemyprofessors.com. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend this because it encourages students to find “easy” teachers, but I think it would be really useful in your case. Find a teacher that is known for teaching well and is willing to help students. I did this for English and chemistry because I was so nervous about ruining my GPA with a bad teacher.</p>
<p>Also, get a tutor right away. Don’t wait until you’re struggling because chemistry can build on itself. The tutor can help you keep up with what is taught and if you truly understand without any help, you can always let them go later. </p>
<p>Another really great site is khanacademy.com. I would recommend this over a textbook or a community college course. They have videos about all kinds of chemistry (and math and other science) topics that can help you to grasp the basics.</p>
<p>Geez, maybe all chemistry teachers are sucky because my chemistry teacher was horrible too!! But just study hard, if you don’t get something, look in the library or online for more detailed information. It’s going to be challenging I think, but if you really want to do good, you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>^Hahahaha, mine sucked too, good thing she got fired! Why did she get the job in the first place, who know! I remember for 1 test, the whole class averaged a “D” and NO ONE got over a 70% on it. We asked why that happened and she said,“You guys didn’t study.” I was about to explode lol, good thing I passed both semesters with an “A” in the class! LOL</p>
<p>JPatel gave some solid advice. Some things that I would add would be to find a study buddy in your class and to read up a little bit on topics BEFORE they are covered in class (if your prof lets you know what will be covered). When I say “pre-study” I mean skim the sections of the book and know the basic vocabulary. Having this baseline knowledge going in to a confusing class can make a big difference. I very rarely pre-studied for class, but when I did it made what the professor was saying make SO much more sense. Sometimes you just get caught up with wondering what the heck they’re saying and writing it down as the prof talks without actually taking the information in. If you pre-study, then you’ll already have some basic knowledge of the topic and will be able to retain what the prof is saying and understand it better. It’s super nerdy, but if it helps out who cares? You’ll get more out of the class and it will be that much less studying you have to do later.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take a class at a different university/college just because you think it will be easier. You’ll have a harder time finding study buddies and utilizing school resources to help you out. Med schools may also question why you did it in the first place.</p>
<p>Do extra practice problems (without peaking at the answers first) and take advantage of free tutors and office hours. The tutors are an invaluable resource that I think is underused, especially by incoming freshmen because they don’t know about them.</p>
<p>For the record… I had awesome chemistry teachers and professors :)</p>